Cumbria owes a great debt of gratitude to Professor David Smythe who voluntarily gave his time and expertise to ensure that the MRWS process wasn’t a one-sided PR exercise. Without his expertise, and that of Professor Stuart Haszeldine, the process would no doubt have continued and the county would be blighted by decades of uncertainty.

Several million pounds of funding was made available for glossy brochures, newspaper advertising and slick meetings. All to convince the Cumbrian public that they should ignore the dangers of burying nuclear waste in geology which has already been proven unsuitable during the £400m Nirex investigation.

The University of Glasgow was founded in the fifteenth century, and has a proud history of scientific discovery. It includes seven Nobel laureates amongst its alumni. Over the last few decades all universities have come under increasing pressure to attract funding through commercial links, but there is a very real danger that commercial interests will be allowed to shape scientific debate, and to silence dissenting voices. Science will be weakened and we will all lose out if that is allowed to happen.

Cumbria Trust’s predecessor organisations have on several occasions invited the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to join us on stage during public meetings. We firmly believe that open debate with opponents and transparency is in the public interest, and leads to good decision-making. Cumbria Trust hopes that the University of Glasgow will look beyond its commercial interests and reverse its decision.

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“Cumbria Trust” is a trading name of The Cumbria Trust Limited which is a company limited by guarantee (registered number 8727682), the registered office of which is at 2, Merchant’s Drive, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 0JW.